At the conclusion of Morrone’s first trial, he was convicted of aggravated assault for pushing his former girlfriend, Christine McGhee, out of his truck and driving while she was holding on to the truck’s passenger running board on Dec. 5, 2008.

McGhee died on March 18, 2012. Morrone was then charged with third-degree murder — a killing with malice.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan H. Kurland makes it simple for the panel to understand his case because he uses a lot of visual aids on the large computer scene. He provides a timeline of events and large photos of the campus and Morrone’s pickup truck.

Kurland said that investigators found the victim’s blood on the passenger side of the truck.

The prosecutor also showed the panel a photograph of the victim smiling.

Morrone’s lawyer, A. Charles Peruto Jr. of Philadelphia, said that the case was clearly involuntary manslaughter, which is a slaying that results because of negligence.

While the victim’s family listened, Peruto said that McGhee got belligerent when she drank alcohol.

He acknowledged that no parent wants to hear that about their child but it was essential for the jury to know the truth.

Kurland called police, who processed evidence collected on the truck.

Kutztown University students described the typical college party.

They talked about how everyone was drinking and having fun.

They said McGhee did not seem intoxicated, but was nervous about her ex-boyfriend coming to meet her at the party.

The jury must determine whether Morrone killed McGhee with malice or whether he was just being negligent.

The families from both sides are watching the trial, hanging on every word.

Sexually assaulting a mentally disabled person is one of the most heart-wrenching crimes.

It was quite painful Thursday to hear testimony about how Joseph Lombardo repeatedly sexually assaulted a woman he was transporting to Special Olympics and other activities in 2010 and 2011.

This is obvious abnormal behavior.

It’s especially frightening for those of us who have mentally disabled relatives and friends.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Kurland summed it up accurately in his closing argument during a sentencing hearing in a packed courtroom before Judge Thomas G. Parisi.

Kurland said the families of disabled people need to know there is trust with people who work with them.

“This defendant casts a shadow of a doubt for all families who have disabled relatives,” Kurland said.

Mentally disabled people are easy prey for predators.

In this case, Lombardo said he thought he had a relationship with a woman he was transporting to Special Olympic and other events.
The victim denied such a relationship existed.

One of the witnesses who testified on behalf of Lombardo was Jeffrey S. Waltman Sr., a city councilman. Waltman testified that Lombardo is remorseful and is not a bad person, and also expressed concern for the victim.

“He told me he made bad judgment,” Waltman said. “He thought he was in a relationship.”

No one wants to believe their friends are capable of doing something so heinous.

In the end, Parisi sentenced Lombardo to four to eight years in state prison followed by 12 years of probation.

Lombardo’s lawyer, George Gonzalez, was unsuccessful in getting Lombardo free on bail while he appeals the case to Superior Court.

David A. Sattazahn, the murder case that never ends, takes another turn

Wednesday was the day I was expecting to report on the re-sentencing in the death penalty case of David A. Sattazahn in the Palm Sunday 1987 slaying of the manager of the Heidelberg Family restaurant manager, Richard D. Boyer, 36, of Newmanstown.

Boyer was shot four times outside the former restaurant in a holdup that netted $2,000.

That is not happening.

Sattazahn, who has been a legal journey for more than a quarter of a century, was expected to have his third sentencing hearing.

He was sentenced to life in prison after his first trial in 1991. After the second trial, he was sentenced to death in 1999.

The U.S. Supreme Court set new law on Jan. 15, 2003 when it ruled that Sattazahn could be re-sentenced to death even through he was sentenced to life in his first trial.

Next, Berks County Judge Scott D. Keller in April 2006 granted Sattazahn a new sentencing hearing, declaring his trial lawyer, John T. Adams, who is now district attorney, ineffective for not providing a mental health background in the sentencing hearing in the second trial.

Berks County Judge John A. Boccabella was expecting to have a jury selected by Wednesday and start testimony in the re-sentencing of Sattazahn.

On Tuesday, however, Boccabella granted a request from Sattazahn’s lawyers, Douglas Waltman and Kevin Feeney, to prevent prosecutors from telling the jury that Sattazahn committed another murder after the Boyer slaying.

Sattazahn was sentenced to 10 to 20 years after pleading guilty to the Dec. 26, 1987 slaying of Michael C. Protivak, 26, Hegins Township, Schuylkill County.

Jury selection was halted after Senior Deputy Attorney General James T. Goldsmith said he will appeal Boccabella’s ruling to the state Superior Court.

Boccabella agreed with the defense attorneys that the law does not allow prosecutors to use a homicide that was committed after the homicide that a defendant is facing before the jury as a reason to impose the death sentence.

Boccabella said this issue has not been previously raised.

The second murder would have provided a stronger reason for a panel to impose death.

The Berks slaying was on April 12, 1987. The Schuylkill slaying was on Dec. 26, 1987.

Now, the re-sentencing hearing is on hold indefinitely.

Meanwhile, Sattazahn remains on death row in the state Correctional Institution at Greene.

A major effort from prosecutors ensures convicted killer is behind bars

In fact, this is the first time in all the years I’ve covered the courts that a judge set bail for a man convicted of third-degree murder before the case was on appeal.

Judge Jeffrey K. Sprecher is unpredictable.

Jose Bonilla-Ortiz, 32, was convicted on Monday of third-degree murder in the slaying of Richard D. Gonzalez, 28, of Prince George’s County, Md. He was also convicted of aggravated assault and weapons in a brawl in which two victims were shot in the legs on Nov. 8, 2009.

After the conviction, Sprecher brought up the issue of bail. Bonilla-Ortiz was acquitted of first-degree murder, which, by law, does not allow bail. But third-degree murder does.

A stressful morning in court concludes with a mistrial

The morning session in the Berks County Court trial of 72-year-old Maurice Connor started early, with major stress for the attorneys as well as the spectators.

Connor is accused providing two weapons to his son, Matthew Connor, who killed Deputy Sheriff Kyle D. Pagerly on June 29, 2011 in Albany Township. A state trooper then fatally shot Matthew Connor.

Connor’s lawyer, Eric Winter, asked the judge late Tuesday to dismiss the charges because the dates pertaining to the weapon exchanges were incorrect on a police report.

Winter and Assistant District Attorney Matthew Thren were up late last night writing briefs on their legal arguments.

After arguments, York County Senior Judge John C. Uhler allowed the case to proceed.
Uhler previously barred the jury from hearing about the two slayings. The judge said the slayings were not pertinent to the gun cases and would taint the jury.

The next drama occurred when two jurors alerted the judge they had discovered the case was related to the Pagerly slaying. The two were dismissed. Before court started, one alternate juror was dismissed because she said she understood the case was related to the deaths. Yesterday, two jurors were dismissed because they said the realized the case was related to the death of Pagerly.

It was the little details in testimony about police going to arrest Connor in the wooded area of Albany Township that reminded the jurors of the slayings. The police said they saw body armor and tents in the woods. They testified that Connor was dressed in camouflage.

It’s hard to believe that anyone who lives in this area and even the Philadelphia region is not familiar with this case.

So, with only 11 jurors left, the judge left it up the the defendant to decided if he wanted to proceed.
Maurice Connor said: “No.”

Pagerly’s slaying had so much media coverage and still does, with all of the ongoing fund-raisers.

Thursday, the trial for Matthew Connor’s friend, Jared Engelman, who is accused of giving Pagerly an AK-47 that Matthew Connor used to kill Pagerly is going on trial. I wonder if there will be another mistrial. We’ll have to wait and find out. Hopefully not.

Just the facts for the jury in the gun case related to the slaying of K-9 Deputy Kyle D. Pagerly

The courtroom in the weapons trial of Maurice Connor began to fill up early.

Family, friends and law enforcement officers sat on the prosecution side to show their support for Deputy Sheriff Kyle D. Pagerly, who was killed June 29, 2011 while attempting to arrest Matthew Connor on a warrant on assault charges in Albany Township.
The was a feeling of sadness and mourning.

A task force trekked in a wooded area of Albany Township when Matthew Conner fatally shot Pagerly. A state trooper then killed Matthew Connor.

York County Judge John C. Uhler is presiding over the case. All the local judges recused themselves because they attended the funeral and many fundraisers for the Pagerly family.

The jury was barred from hearing any evidence pertaining to the fatal deaths of Pagerly and Connor.

This is actually the first trial I covered solely on weapon offenses.

The highlight of the case occurred during the afternoon when state police said Maurice Connor gave his son a gun even though he knew he was forbidden from having a weapon.
“He (Maurice Connor) said he (Matthew Connor) needed it (the .32-caliber) for protection because he was living in a tent,” Cpl. James Cuttitta testified. “He (Matthew) said ‘it’s crazy living in a swamp. It’s scary out there’.”

To top it all off, the day ended when Maurice Connor’s lawyer, Eric Winter, asked for the charges to be dismissed because of an incorrect date on an amended police report.

The judge asked Assistant District Attorney Matthew Thren and Winter to provide written legal arguments. Stay turned tomorrow for the outcome. The case is likely to go to the jury.

Sympathy for the family of jogger attacked in Riverside Park

Word got out at the Berks County Courthouse on Wednesday morning that the step-daughter of Wyomissing lawyer Jill Koestel was one of the five people attacked by a man with scissors as she was jogging in New York City’s Riverside Park at 8 a.m.

People were really sad and shocked that Deanna L. Koestel, 36, a lawyer and Manhattan resident, was stabbed while jogging in the park.

I know so many people who jog in that park. It’s a great place to jog because there are so many trails and interesting people and scenery.

I know Koestel well because she has been so helpful in several stories I have written over the years about family court.

Lucikly, Julius James Graham, 43, the homeless man from Texas, has been arrested in the five stabbings.

It amazes me that just about every time there is a tragedy someone from Berks is involved in some way.

I express my sympathy to Koestel and her family. I hope that she heals quickly. Officials reported she had a punctured lung and dislocated shoulder.

Donald Smith, executive director of the Berks County Bar Association, said the association’s thoughts and prayers are with the family.

“We feel for Jill, her husband, Bob, Deanna, and her fiance and brother,” Smith said. “From a lawyer’s point of view this man obviously needed some mental health care treatment.”

The good news is that Koestel has been nominated for vice president of the bar. The election is Oct. 24.

Smith said she will be elected and then become president in 2015.

Judge Scott E. Lash, head of family court, said he was shocked that something like this could happen.

“They are a great family and I am really sorry,” Lash said. “Our prayers go out to their family.”